Tag Archives: Mies van der Rohe

Scott: The mechanical fallacy

Posted on November 15, 2020 by David Brussat

Perhaps the most eloquent, erudite, evocative denunciation of modern architecture came near the beginning of its ascendancy with Geoffrey Scott’s chapter “The Mechanical Fallacy” from his 1924 book, The Architecture of Humanism. Scott has the modernists dead to rights. The … Continue reading →

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Dickinson vs. Dickinson

Posted on April 27, 2020 by David Brussat

Duo Dickinson is an architect in New Haven whose work, primarily private houses, is creative yet overwhelmingly traditional in appearance. I like his architecture very much. His firm’s portfolio and productivity are impressive. However, when writing and speaking about architecture … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 32 Comments

Romance and the style wars

Posted on December 10, 2019 by David Brussat

On Sunday I saw the 1959 film The Diary of Anne Frank and, in its depiction of Anne’s friendship with the son of another family hiding with the Franks in the attic of a Dutch row house in Nazi-occupied Holland, … Continue reading →

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The trenches of modernism

Posted on July 3, 2019 by David Brussat

Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus school, died fifty years ago today. A new biography is out, Gropius: The Man Who Built the Bauhaus, by Fiona MacCarthy. Two major houses published it simultaneously, Faber & Faber in the U.K. … Continue reading →

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Rybczynski reviews Dystopia

Posted on February 14, 2019 by David Brussat

“Witold Rybczynski on architectural PTSD and what James Stevens Curl gets wrong (and right) in his controversial new book” is the sub-headline of Rybczynski’s review of Making Dystopia, the magisterial history of modern architecture by Britain’s most accomplished architectural historian. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Book/Film Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

The mods’ survival explained

Posted on January 29, 2019 by David Brussat

They cut the feedback loop. Nobody has done a better job of explaining the persistence of modern architecture than does Roger Scruton in his review of James Stevens Curl’s new book, Making Dystopia. In his review, Scruton sums up with … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Architecture’s Three Stooges

Posted on September 30, 2018 by David Brussat

Theodore Dalrymple, a British physician, psychiatrist and theorist of society, culture and design, has written a review of James Stevens Curl’s new book Making Dystopia for the New English Review. Dalrymple calls the book “essential, uncompromising, learned,” and especially devastating … Continue reading →

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Modern architecture is crazy

Posted on January 28, 2018 by David Brussat

Among the most recent revelations of science in the service of architecture is that three of the most eminent founders of modern architecture suffered from mental illness. Le Corbusier was on the autism spectrum while Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies … Continue reading →

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Millais vs. Le Corbusier

Posted on November 5, 2017 by David Brussat

Malcolm Millais, the author of Exploding the Myths of Modern Architecture, has written Le Corbusier, the Dishonest Architect, brought out in Britain by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is a brave book and a necessary book, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Old mods hard-wired to ugly

Posted on August 23, 2017 by David Brussat

The two buildings above say all that needs to be said, really, about why traditional architecture is superior to modern architecture. Still, it is crucial to understand why modern architecture emerged in the first half of the last century, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments